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February 3, 2008

February 3, 2008

Morning Meeting

  • Hymn 235, VV. 1 to 4 – We’ll praise Thee glorious Lord

  • Scripture:

    • Ephesians 5:2
    • John 13:1
  • Prayer
  • Hymn 257, Book 2 – Sweet the theme of Jesus’ love!
  • Scripture – Leviticus 1:8 & 9
  • Hymn 149 – Lord Jesus! we remember
  • Breaking of Bread
  • Hymn 27 – Lamb of God, our souls adore Thee

  • Ministry:

    • Numbers 28:3, 9 & 10, 16 & 17, 19
  • Prayer

Ministry—Norman Burgess

Can we take a moment to look at a type of the Lamb of God; turn to Numbers 28; God is speaking to Moses here. Read v. 3: “And thou shalt say unto them, This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the LORD; two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, for a continual burnt offering.” We know from Exodus that every morning and evening a burnt offering was to be offered. We saw how in a burnt offering, everything is for God; only He can fully appreciate all that is involved in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Day by day, the burnt offering was sacrificed. Read vv. 9 – 10: “And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: this is the burnt offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.” On the Sabbath day, they were to perform two more burnt offerings. Read v.11; added to the Sabbath offerings, they had monthly offerings. Read vv. 16, 17, & 19; again they performed offerings on the feast days. When we realize how many offerings the Israelites were to make and what the significance of these as a type is, what was it to God to look down to Calvary on that day? John the Baptist could say, “Behold, the Lamb of God”; when God beheld the Lamb He provided, he alone could comprehend the value of that sacrifice. But, oh, in some way, we can enter into some of what He did for us: He took our sins on Himself, cleansing us, He gave us a place to draw nigh to Him. He gave us the glorious hope of one day being able to be with Him forever!

Children’s Meeting—Norman Burgess

EG Hymn 341 – Jesus bids us shine,

Prayer

We’ll go on with the story of Creation. We have seen how, in Genesis 1:1, God made the Heavens and Earth. We also saw how God made the invisible world. But it became dark and void, not the perfect way God made it. We don’t know what happened or how long it was. Things also went wrong in the invisible world; Lucifer tried to be equal with God and was cast out of Heaven. We’re going to leave the invisible world now and follow the story of the days of Creation. Read Genesis 1:2b. The world was in total chaos, all covered in water; but God was there. Read v. 3. This is the first utterance of God in the Bible, and He calls for light. What was it like before God created light? There was only darkness, but what is darkness? It is the absence of light. To get darkness, we don’t turn the darkness on; we turn the light off. What is light good for? It reveals, allowing you to see. It is good for life and growth. It is also good for exposing; before light bulbs were invented, people used candles. When light bulbs were relatively new, one man invited his friends over to see this new invention. The plan was that at a certain hour, they would flip a switch and all the bulbs would go on. In these times, when people were used to candle-light, guests didn’t worry too much about getting dressed up when they visited; the candle-light was rather dim, so you couldn’t really see. The hour came and the man flipped the switch; the whole room lit up. Then, one by one, the guests started to leave: the light had exposed their condition; it let everyone see what they really were. So God created this light; we can add this to our chart. But where did it come from? We have read before in Revelation where it says that there will be no need for the sun, because God is the light in Heaven. If God Himself is light, He would have no problem bringing light to earth. So did the darkness disappear? Not completely; God divided the light and darkness to make the day and night. Read vv. 4 & 5. What is interesting about this story is that each day of creation corresponds with salvation. Read II Corinthians 4:6. The same God who created the light has shined His light of truth into our hearts when we are saved. We can call day one illumination.

Reading Meeting

I Peter 4:6–9

We ended at v. 7 last time and saw how the end of all things talks about the end of man’s control on earth. This is at the return of the Lord. Peter was waiting for this to happen imminently and we should be as well; our pilgrimage will soon be over. In light of this fact, there is an appropriate behaviour for us. Firstly, we are to be sober. In this case we are not talking about not being drunk. Sober means serious and sensible. It also speaks to the occupation of our mind; we need to set our minds on things above. Secondly, we are to “watch unto prayer.” This is having an attitude of prayer all the time, to pray without ceasing. These verses (7 – 11) have an assembly application, and prayer is definitely a part of gathering together. But prayer is more than just prayer meeting; even when we are not together, we can pray for each other. Private prayer is very important; Darby says, “watch unto prayers.” This refers not to prewritten, recited prayers, but different types of prayer: confession, thanksgiving, worship, and supplication. We’ll often blend these together, but all are very important. It is a marvellous connection with God.

V. 8 shows us the extreme importance of love, above or before anything else. When gathering like this, it is easy to see one another’s faults, but love will cover “a multitude of sins.” Of the world, people make a living out of making others’ sins public; we should not be a part of that. But that’s not to say we should ignore the wrong. Fervent love will want to help. There was a man who had a son who was somewhat rebellious; another man said to him, “If he were my son, I would …” the man replied, “If he were your son, I would agree with you; but he’s my son.” That father had a fervent love for his son that would do what was best for his son. Also, we cannot simply love someone because of who they are; if you love someone only because you always get along with him, you will not love everyone. We should equally, the way Christ loved us when we were unlovable.

EG Hymn 312 – Jesus loves me! This I know,

Prayer